Hearing on women’s reproductive health and contraception before the House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee held on Feb. 23, 2012

Transcript of remarks by Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.):

“Thank you, Leader [Nancy] Pelosi, for bringing Sandra [Fluke] to this hearing and for your commitment to these issues that are so important to tens of millions of women and men across our country.

“When I took my seat at the hearing last week and I looked out at the panel, I couldn’t help but ask, ‘What is wrong with this picture?’ There was not one single woman on that first panel. Not one. Even though we were there to talk about the needs of tens of millions of American women to have access to insurance for preventive health care, including reproductive rights, including contraception.

“The only freedom that was being debated was the freedom to tell women that they would not have access to family planning. What is wrong with that picture?

“We should not need to remind our colleagues that 100% of those who can have their health damaged by an unplanned pregnancy are women. 100% of those who die from complications related to pregnancy are women. 100% of those who give birth and plan their families are women.

“But 100% of those on that first panel talking about the access to family planning, the ability to plan and space your children, and basic preventive health care, there was not one single woman on that panel. What is wrong with this picture?

“We see all too often in Congress, in state houses, and in the Super PACs that are now dominating the debate on the airwaves that those who would take away a woman’s right to choose, those who compel a woman to undergo medical procedures she does not want or need, those who would introduce a bill on the House floor to allow hospitals to deny pregnant life-saving care are men. What is wrong with that picture?